People Patterns uses Behavioural Economics as a new source of advantage for innovative businesses. Email me bri@peoplepatterns.com.au to unlock the secrets of consumer behaviour for your business or follow the latest on Twitter @peoplepatterns.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Take a study by Chandon and Wansink (2007) for instance that found that when people visit a 'healthy' restaurant, they tend to underestimate the calories they are consuming. In effect, the restaurant's healthy 'halo effect' mucks with our ability to assess our behaviour.

And similarly, a study by Wilcox, Vallen, Block and Fitzsimmons (2009) that found that the mere presence of healthy items increased the likelihood of an indulgent item being selected. In other words, we trick ourselves into thinking we have done the right thing by our mental calorie account through merely considering the healthy item and as a reward, select the indulgence. McDonalds seem to be playing on this through their healthier options, luring us with salads and wraps but then bombarding us with burgers and fries once there.

As the researchers write

"Results demonstrate that individuals are, ironically, more likely to make indulgent food choices when a healthy item is available compared to when it is not available... Presence vicariously fulfils nutrition related goals and provides consumers with license to indulge".

What do these studies mean? Context is crucial and can lower our rational defences. And as a business, you can and should influence that context.

Business implications
For businesses there are some opportunities to consider;

If you are marketing healthy options, you need to contextualise your product. Presenting salads amongst pies and sausage rolls may not be as successful as segmenting healthy and less healthy choices.

If you are marketing indulgent options, consider the role healthy products can play in stimulating choices in your favour. Desserts tucked in amongst fruit and vegetables might be worth pursuing.

And for businesses not involved in food, the lesson of context still holds. Do they see your product as an indulgence or a necessity? Help them feel like they've earned a reward to promote purchase of indulgences and if your product is more utilitarian in nature, try keeping it clear of distracting 'goodies'.

PS Why not join the People Patterns mailing list? Every month you'll receive a short wrap-up of top news from the behavioural sciences and other nuggets of goodness from me. Click here to sign-up.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Getting your buyers to buy more often by helping them know they need to is something every business should be doing. Relying on your customers to design their own re-purchase cycle is leaving yourself open to forgetfulness, delay or worst still, substitution.

Here are three things you should consider implementing.

1. Build in cues of product redundancyIf you have a perishable product, most of your work will be taken care of by nature and health standards. "Use By" and "Best Before" dates are examples of cues that are designed to protect the health of the consumer.

But what if your product's life cycle is not so obvious?

Take your pillow for example. Every night you rest your head on a pillow you purchased maybe years ago, never thinking that it too has a useful life. Not a great re-purchase model for pillow manufacturers. Enter Tontine and their ingenious date-stamped pillow that reminds the customer that the pillow should be changed every two years, and serves as a cue every time the pillow case is removed. Suddenly after the pillow's "expiry" you are not sleeping so well, worried about what pillow gremlins have been unleashed in the depths of the night. For Tontine, whether people buy a new pillow immediately or just sooner than never, they have created a sense of product redundancy and improved their chances of repeat purchase.

So the question for you is whether your product has a life cycle, real or perceived, that you can highlight to your customers?

2. Activate re-purchase by providing a cueSmart manufacturers give their consumers advanced warning of the need to take action. Examples include;

Tissues that change grade and colour as you near the bottom. You know when your white tissue turns pink and scratchy that the good times are over.

Rolls of cling wrap that include a reminder sticker to buy more when you near the end of the reel

Car dashboards that signal when your service is due

And here is an interesting idea for food. A recent study into self-control saw chips coloured red with food dye inserted at intervals in the Pringles-like packet. Whilst the objective of the study was to interrupt over-eating patterns, it shows that there are ways to include cues without interfering with the quality of the food.

The lesson here is that you can help your customer avoid running out of your product by providing them explicit cues.

3. Make the cue transportable

It's great that you have created a need to re-purchase through redundancy and triggered the need to re-purchase, but there's still a long way to go between home and the cash register. You need to help your buyer be reminded to buy your product in the context of purchase.

For example, ever had the experience of being out and enjoying a bottle of wine so much that you sometime later look for it in the bottle shop? If only you can remember what it was called! Clever wine makers have closed this gap by providing a transportable cue in the form of a perforated, take-away tag on the wine label so that the customer can rip it off and keep it handy for their bottle shop hunt.

QR codes can likewise be used to close the gap between product use and repurchase...if only anyone used them. But code scanning technology aside, mobile phones are definitely the key linkage between home and the retailer because they are with your customer in most contexts and used as a source of information and reminder.

The question you should be asking yourself here is how are you physically helping to remind your buyer to buy your product?

Repeat purchase is something that businesses hope for but often don't invest enough time and thought into. Challenge yourself to look at how you can cue the need for re-purchase and you might be pleasantly surprised at the influence you can have over your buyer's cycle.

PS Why not join the People Patterns mailing list? Every month you'll receive a short wrap-up of top news from the behavioural sciences and other nuggets of goodness from me. Click here to sign-up.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Posted by Bri Williams @peoplepatterns, this post contains a summary of tweets noted in the past week that mentioned behavioural/behavioral economics. Where possible, re-tweets and tweets without links been removed to condense the list.

Please note due to other commitments this will be the final Twitter wrap from me. However for those who want to get a short & sharp update every month on the top insights in behavioural economics, simply up here for my newsletter...joining takes only a few seconds. Enjoy!

About Me

Hi! I'm Bri Williams and I run People Patterns, a consultancy specialising in buyer behaviour. I deliver benefits to you by tweaking the interactions you have with your buyers through the application of behavioural science. A marketer and consumer behaviouralist, I've worked across industries for over 15 years, am a specialist contributor to Smartcompany.com.au, facilitator, speaker and author. Contact me at bri@peoplepatterns.com.au to find out how to get your buyers to buy more.

Services available from People Patterns

People Patterns is about businesses getting their buyers to buy more through the application of proven techniques from behavioural sciences such as behavioural economics. By knowing the patterns, you can take the guess work out. Thin of it like "Magician's Secrets finally revealed", but for buyer behaviour!

Contact me via bri@peoplepatterns.com.au or 0408 392 173 to find out about what a difference this new perspective can bring. An obligation free chat could be the best thing you do for your business this year!